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Ho Ho Ho!

Yep, you're right! It's the holiday season. The time of year when everybody's got a smile on their face, Aunt Mary is calling you a cute little boy, and you can't find a radio station that doesn't play Christmas music. The time of year when millions of little children (including Lilshu) can't wait for Santa's arrival. And most importantly the holiday season is a time to come together. Here at Sal's Realm Christmas amounts to more than that because it means the popular display of Sal's Realm's unofficial symbol: the Santa Hat. In past years users have donned santa hats in their avatars. Will this year be the same? Only time will tell...

The Ghosts of Sal's Past

On November 3rd the forums celebrated their 8th anniversary and many current and ex-members celebrated their registration anniversary as well. Thanks to an email every registered user gets when their anniversary happens, the forums saw an influx of old members coming back to say hello. Well known past members such as Sgt. Pepper, Cxkslei, and Dissentor showed up to discuss how they were doing and to reminisce about the old days. Frequent questions involved the Evolution of Combat and RuneScape 3. One old member, Felinoel, asked "How does one kill a shapeshifting crystaline structure that came to Gielinor as a butterfly and shaped it into the planet it is today by changing the enviroment which likely killed off the previous inhabitants of the planet like the dragonkin in order for the planet to produce enough life for that shapeshifting crystalline structure to somehow feed off of and only 'kept the balance' in order to maintain the planet's new enviroment for optimal food production?" Uhh... we'll have to get back to you on that. Anyway, the community enjoyed having these old faces come back and drop in to say hello.

Skill Competitions for November

For November, four skill competitions were held. The first skill competition was Agility, with Kaysie winning. Kaysie racked up a total of 1,332,337 experience with this competition. The second skill competition was hunter, with Dei Wei taking gold with 1,134,795 experience. The third competition held was woodcutting. Kaysie won this competition with an impressive 3,100,733 experience gained. From this, we can all tell that Kaysie is natural with logs [/bad math joke]. The fourth competition was the 20th competition held and thus the users of Sal's Realm decided to hold a special competition. It was decided that this skill competition would be an overall skill competition, and whoever had the most overall experience gained by the end of the 48 hours would be declared winner. Dei Wei won this competition with 7,111,593 experience and trained Defence, Constitution, Prayer, Magic, Cooking, Slayer, and Dungeoneering to get there. Good job to all of the winners and participants!

A Review on the New Tutorial

Tutorials don’t really concern us established players, as we don’t have to take them. Still, they offer a new player their first impression of the game, and anyone interested in the long-term future of RuneScape should be interested in the tutorial. I’m one of those people, so I decided to do it myself and see how I would feel about it if I were a new player, if that’s possible.

The tutorial starts with some silly hocus pocus about heroes. Your character then arrives on the island of Ashdale, far from the shores of the mainland. You first talk to the dwarf Gudrik, who is an ex-hero himself and believes you are the future hero needed to save RuneScape. When you follow Gudrik into town, two zombies come up from the ground, the second after the first is killed, forcing you to learn combat and abilities. You follow Gudrik to a fishing spot and you catch and cook some minnows to prepare you for future fights. While running to the mine, you run into a zombie cow, again forcing you to kill the zombie. This destroys your weapon, so you must mine copper and tin and forge a new bronze sword. A rumbling comes from the church. When you and Gudrik arrive to investigate, it appears to be the work of Morwenna the Cruel, some sort of necromancer that is bringing zombies back to life. You must kill the four zombies she resurrects before eventually killing her. The fight is much harder than the others, but still manageable for an inexperienced player. When you defeat Morwenna, she vanishes into thin air. She leaves behind a headdress, which offers some meager protection for the new player. You walk through the town square amidst the congratulations of the townsfolk before heading off to Gudrik’s boat. If you ask him, he will tell you Morwenna was an evil necromancer who terrorized Gielinor in the fourth age. Why did she come terrorize Ashdale? Probably because Gudrik plundered her tomb in his younger days.

After you arrive on the mainland, players will be directed towards the Blood Pact, Stolen Hearts, Rune Mysteries, the Grand Exchange, Demon Slayer, and the Death of Chivalry.

The tutorial was not as immersive as the two previous tutorials, Tutorial Island and Unstable Foundations, but it didn’t bore you with details. The return to an island format will certainly please some traditionalists. I think it was an interesting first glimpse into the game. That said the graphics in the tutorial are, in my opinion, superior to the ones on the mainland. That could give new players some disappointment when they reach the mainland. After completing the tutorial, new players are sent off to do five quests. This gives away the impression that Runescape is some sort of quest fest, when in reality it is mostly skilling. After completing the tutorial, which is more or less a quest itself, players should explore Taverley and Burthorpe. Otherwise, players will run out of free-to-play quests to do pretty quickly. Regardless, this tutorial is much better than the last “tutorial,” which was more or less wandering around Taverley hoping you don’t get lost.

You can do the tutorial yourself by talking to Gudrik, who is in southern Taverley. You can’t bring any items with you to the tutorial. As a warning, your interface and ability bars will be rearranged.

A New Clan Thread!

Also in the month of November a clan thread was created on the RuneScape official forums in the social/community clan section. Feel free to talk up the clan (and/or the Santafish monthly staff), mention some site news, or just bump the topic once in awhile!

Christmas Event

Every year, Sal's Realm celebrates the holidays with a Christmas event that takes place in-game. This year, the (freeplay) Christmas party will be THE BEST CHRISTMAS PARTY EVER. Maybe. Okay, we'll try. Fun activities will involve socializing, making fun of Micael Fatia, clan wars, making fun of Micael Fatia, and more! The Christmas party will probably take place December 21st, 2013, although this is subject to change. Keep a lookout for the Christmas party event topic which will be posted in early December. There will also likely be a New Years Party for members too, so keep your eyes posted for that!

A holiday wrap-up

When you come home this holiday season, just remember that the holidays aren't about receiving new video games, grasping the newest state-of-the-art iPhone, or having the best decorated front lawn in the neighborhood. It's about being with your friends and family and knowing that even in this cruel and unjust world we can still come together and feel safe. And while that sounds corny, it is true. So enjoy it and make the most of it, while it lasts.